Zen's Art Online Retold
by Personauser93
Summary: My name is Zen Kara, and I was a beta tester for SAO. The game was coming out today, so I didn't have to wait long. I would go get it myself, but I'm paralyzed. The doctors say it will be a miracle if I ever can walk again. The rewrite of my original fanfiction Zen's Art Online
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online just my OC**

It was my only escape from this harsh reality… but they took it from me. only temporary, but still it was gone. My name is Zen Kara, and I was a beta tester for SAO. The game was coming out today, so I didn't have to wait long. I would go get it myself, but I'm paralyzed. The doctors say it will be a miracle if I ever can walk again. It's not impossible for me to walk again. What am I thinking. I laughed. I actually had hope for a second. I was in a hospital bed. My arms and legs were limp and couldn't move. They lay gently on the soft bed… yet, I couldn't feel the soft comfort of the bed. Where my arms were, I felt a void, something nonexistent. No they existed, but, only for the sole purpose of reminding me of the great gift I once had. Were my legs had been, my means of transportation, my ticket into the free world, were now just dead hunks of flesh, hanging, keeping me in this cage of a room. I was in the jail cell of my own body. There was only one hope for a husk like me

SAO a virtual reality online game. That is where I was free, that was my home, not here. This world was a sick joke, while that world… when that world was made for me. It didn't need arms or legs. It used the one thing that hasn't betrayed me, my mind. In the world, even though I couldn't feel anything, I had freedom. I had the power to explore, make friends, and even have a life. I felt my eyes start to water. The thought of freedom. What I had in Aincrad… yes It was definitely better than what I had now. I can't feed myself, I can't protect myself, and I can't even go to the bathroom by myself. I was like a baby. No, I was worse than a baby. Babies could crawl and be free, and as for me, what could I do? I could only lay down wait for the sun to pass me by and the moon lull me to bad while the darkness hid tears. There was only two things that kept me here in the land where the living walked, they were the fact that I wouldn't kill myself if I could. My mother and little sister visit every day. My father was like me. he had also given up on me. I haven't seen that man in months. Besides my father, most of my family still had hope for me. Fools they are. What hope is there? Still, they are the reason I bother logging out of SAO.

The door creaked and opened. It was a nurse. They come around every once and a while to check up on me. This one was here to feed me. Was it lunch? I had no idea what time it was. I had no clock in the room. I asked them to take it out. It just made the days go by slower. I couldn't remember what meal we were on. Once she came in she had sandwiches on tray, so I guessed it was lunch, but who actually knew? I wasn't going to bother asking her.

"It's lunch time Zen"

I was right. The nurse was speaking in a happy tone to try and help me up my mood. No, it didn't work, it would never work. It should have been obvious after the first time they've tried, if not the second. There was no way a stranger would help me feel better. Give me my arms and legs back… that's when my mood will be better.

"You feeling any better?" no I wasn't and I wasn't going to answer her. I abandoned my voice in the real world months back. No this stopped being the real world a long time ago. There was no reason to talk in this fake world anymore. The only person I even react to is my little sister Isis. If I am ever to talk, it would be in SAO. After all that is my real world

The nurse was feeding me the sandwich, and if life wasn't bad enough it had avocado. I hated that stuff. Still I wasn't going to say anything. I just obeyed and ate. Once I was done, she left me again. She had given up on talking to me. Finally.

Hours were starting to pass by and there was no sign of anything happening. Why would there be something happening? Everything in here can't move!

I always seemed to have bad timing, or it was the world's way of laughing at me because the door said otherwise. The door opened and my sister Isis came in. Isis was young around fourteen. She had black long straight hair that stretched down to her waist. Her hair color was the same as mine, and my hair was short, not long. She was very athletic and her arms and legs showed all the time she put into sports. She was living the life I couldn't. I was happy for her, and a bit jealous. She was wearing a school uniform. She must have come to the hospital during her lunch. As she came in she had something in her hand. A plastic container with something that meant more than the world to me. She held in her hand, a copy of SAO, Sword Art Online. That brought me my first smile of the day. My mother always said that my smile was the brightest thing in the world.

My smile was the one give away she got that told her I wanted to play.

"Ok ok, just i'll set you up." She smiled, and pulled off her backpack "Let me see here." she looked through with the biggest smile on her face. My mother was wrong. Isis's smile was the brightest thing in the world. It didn't take her long to find the gear. She put on my nerve gear and I was set. I was now about to play the official version of SAO. Isis finished and I activated it by saying in my head

"Link Start"

The world disappeared and was replaced with white. Colors were flooding my mind they were making up my new home.

Settings came up

**Touch ok**

**Sight ok**

**Hearing ok**

**Taste ok**

**Smell ok**

The settings formed a line. They were all good to go. The connection was going smoothly. I went on to the next screen.

Language. I selected Japanese… what else would it have been? The language setting disappeared, and what replaced it was the login screen. Since I was a beta tester, I had an account already. I put in my name and password.

**Zen(M), correct? Yes or No**

I used my real name for my username. I had no reason not to. No one knew me, so there was no reason to hide my name. Everything looked good. I selected yes and the question faded away

The colors came back flooding my mind again and I was in. The world formed around me. I was now standing in the land of Aincrad

I was in a town paved with white bricks. In front of me was a hedge perfectly cut and it split the path in front of me in two ways.

I noticed something new that wasn't in the beta, and I couldn't hold back tears. How long had it been since I felt something with my hand? Since I felt the ground beneath my feet.

"I can feel!" I touched my face with my hand. The longing that I had for this feeling. It was too much. I could feel it. The warmth of my face, the solid ground. The tears wouldn't stop.

This beautiful world gave me the ability to feel. I'm going to enjoy this… for as long as I live. This world was giving me a good argument to stay forever.

My appearance was taller than my real body and my hair was now white, and since the game had just came out my level went from eighteen, back to one. When I turned around I saw meny players logging on for the first time.

I smiled "Hello Family" a few players gave me a funny look, but I just smiled back at them.

I started walking. I was on floor one otherwise known as "The Town of Beginnings". While I walked through the market I saw many stands of different kinds owned by NPCs selling the basic gear. Pro tip, wait until the next town to buy armor. I saw many a noob buy the steel blade with their starting gold and die on the first floor enemies because they didn't have potions. The market was overflowing with players. The game had just came out, and it was bought out. Ten-thousand copies meant that ten-thousand players were walking around this town,or they could even be killing their first mob right now. That's where I wanted to be. I wanted to level. I bought a few potions, and made haste towards the fields. I was running past players and even bumped into a few. Besides the occasional "excuse me" I didn't stop to say sorry.

It only took a while to get to the fields, but once I got there I saw great fields of grass, flowers blooming everywhere. The place looked beautiful. I took a second to enjoy the sight, but only a second. I saw bores that I could fight. Frenzy Boars were easy to deal with. I opened my menu and looked at my equipment to see that I had started off with the standard starting equipment. I readied my stance for the first blow on the bore. Sword skills were all about the stance, or the pre-motion of the attack. If you hold a certain position, the skill will activate. My sword was by my hips facing my back. The skill activated and my body glowed a faint purple aura. I ran, the grass and the wind were supporting my action. I jammed the sword into the bore's side making a gap where coded blood burst out of the boars side. Once I had passed through I turned around to see that the HP bar above the boar's head went to half. I got in position to activate another skill as bore charged for revenge. I gripped the cold steel in my hand and pointed the sword towards the ground. I activated another skill and slashed upwards. The bore ran into the cut, and the momentum from the bore's charge gave my sword the momentum to slice the whole thing in half.

I defeated my first enemy. I continued to do this for a good twenty minutes until I leveled up. I wanted to save the skill points that I got from the level up. I didn't have a clue about what I wanted to build my character. Two-handed swords? One-handed? Should I use a Spear, Maybe a dagger? I decided to think about it later, and I continued to kill off bores for a good hour. Two bores was my limit at one time. The second bore managed to land a few blows on me and I found out that they didn't transfer the feeling of pain into the game. That made it more convenient for me. I only had to remember the good and not the bad parts of being able to feel.

Once I hit level three, I decided I wanted to log out. I opened the screen and opened the settings.

"What's this?" I said. I had to look again, but once I did, I noticed "Where is the logout button?" I checked every menu and option for the log out. It was just gone. I wanted to think that it was an error that they were going to fix, but I was about to have my answer. My body started to decode bit by bit. It was a force teleport.

When I was put back together I was in a colosseum type area, and I wasn't the only one here. This stadium was able to hold a huge crowd of people. I had to believe that this was every player that was currently logged on. A bell was ringing from the bell tower in the dead center of the town of beginnings, and there was a commotion amongst the crowd. Everyone was in a state of confusion.

"Do you know what is happening?" a random guy asked me.

"No… sorry" I replied

I didn't know what was going on, and judging by the crowd's reaction, no one else did either.

"Look up there" someone spotted something. It was a glowing red panel blinking off and on saying warning. It was so ominous. It sent chills down my spine. Once everyone had their attention on it, it grew. Warning, system error, warning. Panels filled the sky with these messages, and surrounded the town in a dome.

Red liquid started oozing out of the cracks in the panels forming a huge blob in the air. The blob eventually formed a clocked man. The man didn't have a face. I would think that it was a welcome event, but it was too ominous.

"Attention players. I welcome you to my world." The cloaked figure greeted. "My name is Akihiko Kiaba and as of this moment I am in control of this world." What does he mean by that? I thought to myself. Akihiko Kiaba? The guy who developed the game?

"I'm sure most of you have noticed that you are all missing an option in your main menu. The log out button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect in the game. This is how Sword Art Online was designed to be. You cannot log yourself out of SAO and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the nerve gear that is on your head. If anyone tries to do so, a transmitter inside the nerve gear will go off and fry your brain and you will die."

Everyone was panicking at what he had said. There was no way out of this game

Akihiko continued "despite my warning family and friends have tried to remove the nerve gear from some of the players. As a result, the game has two hundred and thirteen less players then when it had begun." He brought up new reports in the sky reporting deaths from nerve gear. This man was serious.

"There is no longer anyway to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be deleted from the system, forever and the nerve gear will destroy your brain."

This has to be a joke. I thought

"there is only one way for a player to escape death and that is to complete the game. Right now you are gathered on floor one. The lowest level of Incrag. If you manage to defeat the dungeon and defeat the boss you may advance to the next floor. If you defeat the boss on floor one hundred and you will have cleared the game."

This was now a death game. My sweat escape was now a fight for my life. I never had anything work out for me. Even my freedom comes with a price.

"One last thing" the cloaked figure continued "I gave you all an item in you inventory, please take a look."

I took out the item in my inventory and it was a mirror. What was this supposed to do? Remind us of who we are? My questions were swiftly answered when every player was swallowed by a light. Once all the lights disappeared we were all revealed as we truly were. I was lucky that my body didn't bring the paralyzation with it.

"You are probably wondering why I did this"

Damn right I am

"My goal was to be able to control the fate of a world I designed. As you can see I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

**And thus begins the reboot, remade, improved, and newer than ever! Zen's Art Online. YES! What a long time it has been. IT is time my gentle readers. To revisit this jank fanfiction and embrace the new changes to this lovely fanfiction.**


	2. Trapped in Paradise

_**Chapter 2: Chapter 2**_

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO

The cloaked man disappeared. As he left the air became silent and tense. The despair in the air was like a shadowy fog that covered the stadium. I could see it all around. The terrified looks on everyone's faces. There was going to be panic. I have to control myself, I couldn't get caught up in my emotions. I had so many emotions twisting into a not in my stomach. I was scared that I could die in here, but I also felt excited that I wouldn't have to log out… but that also made me feel sick. I was sick that given these circumstances, I was feeling happy.

Think of the other people here dammit!

I had to pull myself together. we won't be able to clear the game if we panic and do nothing. Everyone ran for the town as they were screaming their heads off.

I had no time for this. I thought.

I fought through the crowd. People bumped and grabbed me in the mad dash to get out of the stadium, but luckily I was able to make it through unharmed. I had to hurry. Everyone was going to be panicking for a while, but not forever. Once they stop the area will be full of players trying to level and get out of the game. The competition will stagger my experience growth rate and I won't be able to level clearly. I had to go. I made my way to the west side of the fields.

I need to level, I need to level. I repeated that phrase in my head as I slashed through mobs over and over. I had a look around to see that I wasn't the only one that was grinding. I saw others there as well. These are the people that have potential to beat the game.

**One month later**

After a month of the game coming out people had finally calmed down and accepted it. One of the things I didn't expect was that more players than I thought had risen up from despair the first day and had levels almost equal to mine. I was at a confident position right now. I could take out any mob I wanted in one shot. In the month I managed to reach level fifteen. I was confident, I felt as if I could actually make it. I could make this climb to floor one hundred. All I needed to do was keep my levels up and play smart. I've memorized the first floor and I was ready for the boss.

We hadn't known were the boss room was until just recently when a beta player found it out. With the location found, most players agreed that some of the best should form a huge party and go fight the thing.

We decided to meet in a small colosseum. The crowd was small, and most of the players were lower level then I. I honestly expected more. Some of the top players like Heathcliff couldn't even bother showing up to this meeting.

The crowd sat as a man with blue hair spoke. He wore armor and looked not much older than me. He looked confident, and charismatic, two things that I was not. He started the speech with a dungeons and dragons joke that was half decent. After a second he was giving information I already knew about the boss about the boss so tuned him out. I wanted to take a look at everyone around me. There were about thirty nine of us. few of them looked like they were ready for this. I saw some guy looking at his shoes. Others looked ready, concentrated, and to my surprise there was a few players my level. In the beta we used a team of twenty to clear the boss, but we lost five so it was better that we had almost double the amount of players here. Hopefully we wouldn't lose anyone.

"I would like you all to group in pairs of Six." The Diabel told the us. Everyone obeyed and teamed up into teams of six fast, so fast that I was left out and alone. It looked like most people knew each other. Without a team member, It looked like I wouldn't be participating in the boss fight. Going in without a team member to switch into so that you can recover points is suicide. Ugh, I guess not making any friends for the last month is going to bite me in the butt.

"I looks like you've been left alone just like us." A figure approached me. He had black short hair that made a great complement to his grey eyes. The boy had a blue T-shirt under some armor, he was around my age, and I could tell by his equipment that he was one of the few around my level, if not higher. The boy was with a girl who didn't seem like she wanted to talk. She was in a cloak so I couldn't see much of what she looked like besides her orange hair.

"Would you like to join up with us?" he sent me an invite, a screen appeared before my eyes that read

You have been invited to a party. Accept? Yes or no?

"I guess I'm not the only one without friends." I nervously laughed selecting yes

"Yea i've been too busy leveling up." The boy smiled sheepishly

"Same" I smiled

I believed that we could do this. In the beta I was level ten when I attempted to fight the boss. This time I'm level fifteen, I was definitely ready.

Right below my health I saw two more bars of health show up. By the health bars appeared the names, Kirito, and Asuna.

Once everyone was ready, we were about to leave when a guy with orange weirdly spiked hair jumped into the center of the area. He was spouting out some crap about beta testers.

"My name is Kibaou, and before we fight the boss I wanted to get something off my chest. We know about the two thousand people who've died so far ya? Well some of you need to apologize to them right now!" he said pointing to the crowd.

"Are you talking about the ex beta testers?" I stood up in the crowd

"Of course I mean them! As soon as this game started the beta guys just up and vanished. They snagged all the good hunting spots, and took all the easy quests too! We should make them apologize to us! We should make them give up their money and their good items to us! We can't expect the party to trust them when they don't trust us!" His speech only had a bad effect on me. It made me want to take more of this guy's experience.

"Can I say something?" A tall dark skinned bald guy stood up. This guy looked fit. He was about twice the size of Kibaou, and towered over him.

"Hay, my name is Agil. Kibaou right? I want to make sure i'm on the same page as you. You say the ex-beta testers should be blamed for the rookies' deaths because they didn't help them, and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't" Kibaou said

Agil pulled out a small book from his back pocket. A little handy book that I honestly forgot existed "The item shop hands these out for free." he said showing the crowd "It's a guide book. You got one didn't you? Well the ex-beta testers were handing these out. Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, lots of players still died. Now I didn't come here to point fingers at anyone. I'm here because I want to learn from those players deaths. I'm here because I want to find out how we're going to defeat the boss!"

After Agil's speech the Kibaou seemed to be quelled. Diabel gave us the rundown on the boss again.

Money will be divided equally, and all exp and items go to the group who killed the monster. With all that info we set a date to fight the boss. We started tomorrow.

I took the time we had, and went to enjoy myself. They were having a party, drinking what might be their last drink. I on the other hand used my time to spar with other players. We could spar with each other safely by using option duel, which allows us to fight without any real danger.

There was only a few who wanted to spar, three to be exact. I fought first and I was up against a bigger player in his later twenties. He had brown messy hair, and an unkempt beard. The man had a two handed sword, and was already acting like he had won. He smiled, as took a position like he was going to charge me like a bull. The countdown was ticking indicated by floating numbers in the air. The timer finally was at the last three counts. The guy cracked his neck.

Three, two, one, it started. This fight was simple. I believed that the first one to land a strike in PvP is always the one with the advantage. If you can land the first strike against it against an inexperienced opponent, you can make them scared of you. They'll start making mistakes. When someone is scared you can see in their eyes what they plan to do. At least, that is what I believe. He wanted to have the first strike as well, but he wanted it for different reasons. He wanted to end the battle fast and in one strike. He had a two handed sword, so since I had a one handed I was faster. I let him swing first, in which he did. He swung vertically trying to take my arm off and end the duel. I dodged to the left and swung with my left hand up towards his face. I was too far to do any real damage, but I was able to cut his face. My attack left me open which would have been bad if he had a one handed weapon, but his two handed sword was still stuck in the ground when I cut his face.

Once he ripped his sword out of the ground. I had to back up to max distance of his sword to be in a safe situation. I had to be ready for his next strike. I was waiting for it, but then I realized my strike worked. He was too afraid to be the first to swing. I had this won. He knew that if he swings first, it would end the same way as the first. So he was waiting for me to attack him, so he could go for a counter attack. I charged sword ready. I predicted that he would be looking for my strike. His eyes were glued to my sword, but as I got closer I faked a strike. He jumped back. I followed. I used my sword to strike his hands. The force of my blow smacked the blade out of his hands. His eyes wide, he couldn't believe what had happened. The man fell to his knees in defeat.

"You've won." He sighed. He looked at his blade on the ground, and then to me "I'm glad you're on our side." He stood up and offered his hand for a shake. Before I could shake his hand another person interrupted us.

Someone had stepped in from the crowd. The guy slick and skinny. I had one challenger after another. The night was young and it looked like I had quite the line on my hands.

**The next day**

We were in the dungeon now looking at the boss door. It was a jungle dungeon so we had the players avoid any dangerous looking plants or fruit or berries. The crew met pretty early so most of the players were near half asleep. Thanks to some of being beta testers, we had an idea of what this battle was going to go like, but plans do always go as planned? It was finally time for me to spend my skill points. I spent a majority of them on my one handed. It looked to be the weapon that I was using the most. Maybe later down the line I would pick up a shield. I saved some of my points in the rare chance that I changed my mind.

"I'm ready" I told Kirito

"Ok, how about you" he looked towards Asuna. She just simply looked towards us and shook her head yes. Kirito left to tell the leader that we were ready, and it left me and Asuna alone. She was for sure a female, but she had a cloak with a hood. I couldn't see any of her facial fetchers and her age was a mystery. I could only see some of her orange hair that occasionally draped out of the hood.

She had a rapier and had great fighting skills, but she had the game logic of a noob. She didn't know what a switch was. My nerves were great! I definitely didn't want to turn around when I learned that she didn't know what a switch was. We made it to the lair. There was a demonic looking door that I guess led to the boss. The place was dark, so everyone had to gather near the door where there were two torches lit. Diabel spoke.

"Listen up everyone. I have only one thing to say to you. Let's win!" this got everyone pumped. He opened the door revealing a dark room with the boss sitting on his throne. The boss jumped from his throne and the lights turned on. The room was huge, supported by marble columns. The place looked colorful. The walls glowed and looked we were underwater… or swallowed by a rainbow. Once the boss landed on the floor I was able to see his name clearly. ILLFang the Kobold Lord, the name appeared above four gauges of health. The boss looked like a humanoid monster with red skin. He had the head of a dog and in his hands were two huge weapons, an axe and a shield. He was just like I remembered him in the beta. His minions appeared and they looked like smaller armored versions of him, but had clubs as weapons. The enemies were the first to charge.

"Commence attack!" the Diabel yelled as everyone sprang into action

Our team charged. Once we were fighting, Kirito would be the one to knock the enemies back while Asuna and I finished them off. I took care of any stragglers that tried to come towards us from the sides. Our targets were the minions that spawn until the boss reached thirty percent HP, but when the boss reaches ten percent he brings out his stronger weapon that can kill most anyone here, plus he gets a buff in defense. Kirito staggered another and I shoved my sword into its heart to finish it. Kirito staggered another and another.

Kirito was fast, if I didn't have Asuna helping me I would have been able to keep up, but what amazed me was that Asuna was even faster than Kirito. I was baffled. The fighting continued for a long time. It felt like hours before we made any real progress on the boss. After killing what seemed to be my twentieth Kobold Kight, I turned to see that the boss was finally under ten percent. He threw away both his weapons, but didn't grab its sword yet.

"Stand back I got it." the leader said as he charged the boss. It was strange because that was not the plan that we had one we first came into the room. The leader charged a skill and got ready to do the final blow. The boss finally grabbed his sword, but it was not the one I remember. This was trouble. In the Beta he had a Talwar, but now he had No-dachi, which was not only stronger, it was longer. Not only that, the boss jumped around like it had an increase to its speed.

"It's no good!" Kirito yelled. He had spotted it as well. Diabel charged in, but as he did the boss jumped on pillars that were in the room. The speed boost made him seem like a blur. He stopped mid air and landed right on top of the blue haired knight. The boss had brought his sword down through the knight's chest, then the boss jumped behind the airborne knight and slashed his back. Once he was done with that he moved onto his next target. Kirito ran to the leader's assistance. While he was gone I had to protect the rest from the danger of this boss.

The boss was jumping around again. He went for his next target, but found his sword blocked by mine. The blow knocked me off my feet and sent me flying He roared and jumped back.. I looked over to see that our leader was dead, he shattered into pieces like glass and my heart sank. Kirito walked up to me and Asuna joined

"Let's kick this boss's ass" I mumbled. All three of us ran towards the boss.

"We'll hit him just like we did the minions!"

"Got it." Asuna and I were in sync.

The boss charged a skill once it saw us. To counter Kirito charged a skill. They collided and both became staggered.

"Switch!" Kirito Yelled. Asuna was in, but the boss recovered too fast his swung hard towards the ground. Asuna managed to dodge but just barely. The swing ripped her cloak right off revealing a girl with long hair that went to her hips but was partially tied in the back. she was wearing a red sleeveless jacket that went with her orange eyes.

Asuna took the moment after she dodged to charge a skill and jab her sword right into the boss's chest.

"Switch!" she yelled putting me in. I charged a skill and planted it right into his stomach which made him fly a few feet back.

"He's coming back!" Kirito yelled as the boss ran towards me. Kirito was fast enough to intercept the boss and stagger them both again. Kirito and the boss were going at it one on one for a while until the boss's speed boost came back and he got a shot of through Kirito's stomach. Kirito lived which seemed really weird to me. it was a clear indicator that Kirito was at least two levels higher than me. Asuna was the one to catch Kirito when he was sent flying by the boss, but the boss attacked them while they were down. I blocked the attack for them and used a skill to hit the boss. The boss jumped back

"Recover quick and get back in this." I told them both. I turned to the boss and charged. Everyone here besides Asuna and Kirito charged with me. The boss was highly defensive as everyone banged on its sword. It used a defensive skill to blow everyone back and jumped into the air. It was going for a kill when Kirito jumped and cut through the boss. The boss landed violently on the ground. His health was going to give. He had only a few hits left Kirito and Asuna charged it and I followed. Kitito staggered it for the last time and Asuna charged a skill. Asuna was going to get the kill and the bonus, but Kirito charged in front of her and violently ripped the boss in half with his sword. The air was I sign showing that we had defeated the boss. It read congratulations

Everyone started cheering as we got our experience. I got a level up myself, so why not cheer? Agil came up to Kirito to congratulate him for a job well done and everyone gave him a round of applause.

"Stop cheering!" the Kibaou spoke up. "Why…why did you let Diabel die?"

"Let him die?"

"Of course! You knew what technique the boss would use! If you'd given us that information up front, he wouldn't have died!"

"I know how he knew!" a random spoke up. (Shut up random. You're not helping anyone) "he must be an ex-beta tester! He knew all the boss's attack patterns! I bet he is not the only beta tester here either! There's gotta be others here to right? Come out!" the tension in the crowd was thick. It felt like everyone was going to turn on each-other. This is no way to win a game. The tension broke by a maniacal laugh. I turned to see Kirito having fun with this.

"I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies." Kirito spoke up "most of the one thousand people who won SAO beta test slots were beginners, who didn't even know how to level up. Even you guys are better than them. but I'm not like those guys. During the beta test, I made it to higher levels than anyone else was able to reach. The reason I knew about the boss's sword skills, was because I fought tons of monsters with those skills on the floors far above us. I know lots of other things too. Way more than any information broker.

He started a commotion and was trying to get everyone to hate him. He was trying to be a scapegoat for all the beta testers. If they hated him they would also have to hate me as well

In the crowd everyone was mummering. They were all bad mouthing Kirito.

"He's worse than a cheater! He's a Beater!" someone in the crowd shouted

"A beater… that's a good name. All right I am a beater. From now on, don't confuse me with the other testers." He put on the item he got from the boss. A black coat covered him. I had to hold back a small chuckle. It looked edgy, and it was too perfect for the situation. Kirito started to leave to the next floor Asuna chased after him and I followed

"How did you know my name?" Asuna asked Kirito

"If you look under you HP gauge you'll see two names. I should be the one right under yours." She looked

"So it was written there all this time!" she laughed

Kirito turned towards the second floor door. "you two can become powerful. So if someone you trust ever invite you to join a guild, don't turn them down. Because there's an absolute limit to what you can do as a solo player."

Psh me join a guild? Maybe when pigs fly. I wasn't the party type… or the friend type. Kirito walked up to the door and disbanded our party. Afterwards he walked to the second floor.

After Kirito left everyone went back to the town of beginnings to tell everyone that the game is actually beatable. Well, at least the first floor was beatable. As for me I went through the door. I was now in floor two. It was one of the most annoying dungeons that almost every game has… A cave dungeon.


	3. Brothers

**Chapter 3: Brothers**

Caves are one of the worst designs in games for more than one reason. First reason is that they are over used, second is because they're usually nothing new about them. No one needs to describe a cave, there are rocks, tunnels, and hay look at the bat and slime mobs… I guess that you could describe the feeling, but the only feeling that I get are the ones of loneliness and the feeling like I was trapped, two feelings that I didn't get along with well. Whenever I wondered out of town, I felt cold. The icy air hit harder with the lack of distractions.

The cave was not fun at all and the bat mobs spawning every five seconds didn't help at all. Just like the first floor this one had changes from the beta. There was no light in the dungeons outside of the towns. It is so dark in the dungeons that the only way you would be able to see you hand is if it was glowing. Kayaba made it impossible to survive without a torch. When the lights are off good luck fighting the bats. Plus! torches were never reliable, they only had fifteen minutes before they went out and there are dud torches that go out at random times. We lost five players already because of duds. This floor was a floor designed to kill players and for nothing else. The creatures on this floor gave so little experience that you could grind for months without gaining a level. This place was the worst. I needed to complete this floor quick before I lost my mind.

It's been a week on this floor and it was time to look for the boss door. I took it upon myself to start mapping out the floor. Sadly, I didn't have four arms. I couldn't carry a pen, paper, torches, and my sword at the same time. I had to form a party. I had a party of three, including me. I teamed up with two guys that seemed like they knew what they were doing. They looked like they were brothers. There was a small one that looked around the age of Eleven and there was a large one around the age of seventeen, my age. They both had red unkempt hair, and brown eyes. The older one was wearing armor that looked customized to look cool. It was a black knight's suit that had gems on the shoulders, and on the gloves. I could tell that he has had that armor for a while now because it's stats were the same as those on the first floor. Most likely he spent his money on making his armor, and weapons look cool, but didn't save any money to buy new equipment on the higher floors… or he was too lazy to grind for the cash to buy it. The younger one had up to date equipment. It was the look of the base iron armor that was in the shops on this floor. If I had to guess, the younger brother had the ability to prioritize better than the older one.

Luckily, we only took five hours, and we had already explored a large portion of the dungeon. We had only forty-five minutes left of exploring time, if the three torches weren't duds, and we had twenty minutes until we got to the town. We had a good amount of time to get back to the town. Always have extra time on your torches. It could be the difference between life, or death. As we were walking back the two brothers were talking to each other, and laughing. I kept my distance. They were talking about old games they used to play, and were saying inside jokes that I wouldn't understand. As we continued walking the brothers went silent. They seemed to be in deep thought, and the older one had a grim look on his face.

"The beater is in this town. That Kirito guy." the older one spat

The younger brother ran in front of the group and turned to walk backwards.

"Yea… if it wasn't for that guy and the other beta testers holding back information, I bet this game would have been completed already."

"I think we should kill him" the older one said

"Woah There Lan! If we kill them, they die in real life."

"It will be the perfect murder! Think about it! If it wasn't for these stupid beta testers, we wouldn't be here right now! Why are we making a map. When they already know this floor. They don't care about our lives. Why care about theirs?"

"I guess you're right." the little brother frowned

"I think the beta testers want to get out of this game just as much as you do."

"You're on their side?" the older brother spat

"There are sides now?"

"Yea… around town there is a rumored guild that is new. Started by a bunch of people that are ok with killing."

"You're talking about Laughing Coffin. If you plan on joining them, you are sick in the brain."

"I'm with big bro on this. Beta testers need to be wiped from this game." the little brother raised his sword towards me "Starting with you."

The older brother looked surprised, and then took a moment to raise his sword "Nice one Ruffy! How'd you know?"

"He seemed like he knew too much about what he was doing… and his level was too high for him to not be a beta tester."

"So! What do you have to say for yourself?"

"I'm not your enemy." I said unsheathing my sword.

"You think you can take me! I'm gonna!"

"Stop!" the little brother said interrupting his older brother who looked as if he was going to charge me

"We would die if we tried to take him on. Look at his level. He has enough stats to take us both on."

"There are two of us." the older one protested

"But do you think you can take me on without any casualties?" I asked them

"Damn!"

"Lan, I have a plan. He doesn't have any torches. Why don't we just leave him here to die in the darkness."

"I can just follow you guys back." I said in a are you dumb tone

"Yea Ruffy, I don't think that plan will work." said the older one

"Let me finish." Ruffy rubbed his temples "There is a rare item drop that I happened to buy."

As the younger sibling spoke my heart began to sink. My stomach churned. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I forgot they because available in the floor two shops.

"It's a teleport crystal. It will teleport us to any town we've been too." the little brother threw a blue rectangular crystal to his sibling

"Nice!" Lan said holding it up.

"How do you know that I don't have one too?" I asked confidently

The siblings started to break into pixels and teleport away, but before they were completely gone the younger brother smiled at me

"Because if you had one, you wouldn't be so worried about how much torch time we had left." and with that they were gone. I was left alone and the room went dark instantly.

I had to run, but I had no idea where I was going. After a few seconds I felt a terrible surge of pain when I ran into a wall. I put my hand to the side of the wall so I could follow along it. I knew the general direction of the town. So hopefully I would make it.

Bats started to spawn. I heard them flying around me. I gripped my sword in my left hand, and kept my right on the wall. Whenever a bat clawed me I slashed in the direction it came from. I made it five minutes before my health was getting low. I held my sword with my right arm as I pulled down the menu in the dark. Luckily having lived in the game for so long I memorized the menus. Once I was in the item select screen I selected a random option, and a glass bottle appeared in my left hand, I immediately put the potion to my lips.

I had the luck of the gods. It was a potion that healed me. A few more feet. I told myself. I could see the light up ahead. I picked up speed. I ran as fast as my legs could take me. I got closer, and noticed that it wasn't the town. It was the two torches in front of the boss door. I dove into the light. Behind me were five bats. I swung my sword in a one-hundred and eighty degree angle. The slash evaporated three of them on the spot. The other two flew around me. One dove in, and then the other. My sword was ready. I took a stab at the first making a shish kabob out of it. The second managed to scratch me on my cheek. I turned around swinging my sword, and the second was gone before I could even see it.

I had survived. Granted, my health was low. No, my health was critical, and I was stuck in front of the boss door with no torch to go back to the town.

If I got one thing out of this, it was that I couldn't really trust anyone that wasn't family. Those two brothers reminded me just how people really were. It didn't take them five seconds to decide that they wanted to kill every beta tester. We were doing fine. We had them map drawn, and most of the floor was complete, then they decide to throw all that work down the toilet because I was a beta tester. We aren't stuck in the game because beta testers don't share information. We are stuck in this game because people like them.

Now what do I do? I guess the only thing I can do is wait for people to discover the door. Will that be days? The first floor took months. I had a few health potions. Luckily monsters didn't spawn near the boss door. My digital body didn't need food or water, so all I had to do was wait.

Wait until someone discovers this door.


	4. Two Days With Her

**Chapter 4: Chapter 4**

disclaimer: I don't own SAO

After five months we had made great progress.

We had made it to floor 16. the dungeons got harder and longer every floor but we managed to complete every floor with minimal casualties. It seemed harder to level each floor as well, my level was now 32. I was the highest leveled character in SAO. The next time I run into those brothers they'll pay for what they did to me. I was lucky to make it out of that alive. Not many knew who I was, just me and my info broker. I had more time to grind then most people because I don't sleep as much as other people. I had enough time in a bed and I didn't come to SAO to sleep, death game or not this is reality now.

I was on the floor 15 dungeon and thankfully it was a field dungeon. I had just slayed my fortieth monster of the day when an armored player approached me. He had red armor that had a white outline to it. Once he approached me I noticed that he was not alone. He had a group of at least thirty players behind him.

The first thing I thought was that the guy was popular. The second was that I didn't know what he wanted with me. He looked like he was from that one popular guild. Hopefully he wasn't here to recruit me. If he was, he was going to be disappointed. I raised my hand for greeting

"hello." I mummer before I turned away and went back to my grinding. I ran to the next giant killer bee in the field and cleaved it in two.

The man caught up with me again. It was sorta funny when the thirty players ran with him to catch up with me. When he finally caught me he tried to keep a regal face, but I could see that he had a hint of irritation.

"Hello Zen Kara, my names Heathcliff leader of the knights of the blood oath~"

"Don't care bye" I continued to fight my next mob, but this man was persistent and it was getting on my nerves. After a second of him following me I stopped and stared at him in the eye so I could get this over with an get back to my world.

"What do you want?" I said with an irritated mumble

Through all of the chasing I put him through he was able to keep his composure.

"Fine..." His face turned to one of harshness like he was rethinking his action "we are the number one guild in Aincrad right now, and I would like you to join. You could be of great help with~"

"No thanks" I interrupted. This caused an awkward moment of silence followed by the crowd behind Heathcliff outraging.

"How dare you!" I heard a man yell. It made my chuckle

I kept my calm and raised my hand to wave him Off. His face was now one of disappointment.

"Well that's too bad" he started to walk away when there was a hand in the crowd that was raised

"What is it?" Heathcliff turned to the crowd. The crowd started to rustle a bit until a girl with long black hair and a white jumpsuit popped out.

"We can't give up that easily!" The girl shouted in an unneeded tone. The girl charged at a high speed to me and grabbed my hand. "If he is one of the strongest players on the front line, we need to convince him."

Heathcliff looked at her, and then looked at me

"Leave him to me! Chief Heath!" She shouted as she raised the hand that was holding mine. I tried to struggle but her grip was locked, it felt like only a buzz-saw would be able to free me.

"Fine I'll give you three days Lexi." Heathcliff said as he left His helper behind. Excited that she got permission she started bouncing up and down, pushing me and pulling me. It hurt I-I just wanted to RAH

"LET GO!"

**Day one**

What can I say about Lexi... Highly annoying, really bubbly, doesn't know when to shut up. Lexi followed me throughout my grinding. She leached experience and hasn't stopped talking since Heathcliff left her with me. I can see why he didn't stop to think about her going with me. What was he trying to do anyways?

Torture me into joining the knights? Anyways Lexi was none stop about why I should join the knights and what they do. I only caught a bit of it. It is their job to gather players in arms to complete the game blah blah blah. I caught that Asuna was the second in command, and that they needed me... Really... Really... Really! Badly. Even though I was happy for Asuna for following Kirito's advice, I couldn't help but wonder... Why the knights of the blood oath?

"You even listening!?" Lexi yelled a little upset throwing her arms out to her side and stomping on the ground.

"No" I replied still moving "I don't get how you can be so persistent." I speed up. She caught up. I went into a light jog, and she did the same. I ran, and she sprinted. She was fast, she got jumped in front of me and held a hand out to stop me.

"Because I have to get you on our side!"

"And how are you going to do that in only three days?"

"I'm just going to keep bugging you for all three days and if that fails I'm going to use my secret weapon!" She raised her fist into the air and shut her eyes for dramatic effect.

"Secret weapon? What's that?"

"Shhhhh it's a secret." she put her finger on my mouth

"Yeah. Whatever. I don't really do the people thing. I'm a solo player"

And so she continued to bug me. We made our way through the field of mobs, and split the experience. I was doing all the work, but sure! She can get a level up or two standing in the general area, Yapping like a chiwawa. After a while I hoped that it would sound like white noise, but any time I've ever gotten my hopes up, they've gotten crushed.

After all the grinding, we went back to the inn that I was staying at. It was a very unpopular inn that nobody goes to because its small, ugly, and costs the same amount that every other inn on the floor. The inn had no matching colors with a design of green and red. It was a holiday inn for Christmas. A horribly decorated one. The fact that no one comes to this inn made it perfect for me since I'm not much of a people person. When we stepped foot into the inn we were greeted by a NPC behind a counter. Behind the NPC were wooden cubbies that held the keys to all the rooms in the house.

"I would like to stay the night." I walked up to the inn NPC

"Alright that will be~"

"I know. In fact, I'll just buy every room there is tonight." A menu appeared in front of me. On the menu it showed a transaction. There were twenty rooms in the hotel, so I had to pay for twenty nights. I transferred the money to the NPC's account and she handed me the keys. With all the keys I made my way to the room I usually slept.

The inn was a two story building with only actual rooms on the second floor. As I got up the stairs I stopped right in front of the closest door.

"I'm going to bed now, see you tomorrow." I waved Lexi off, but she didn't seem to want to leave. She stood determined.

She put her hands at her hip and leaned back to puff out her chest and show authority

"I'm not going an~"

"Night" I shut the door on her. I looked back to my room to see a room with only two beds. The walls were covered in red and green wallpaper. The furnerature was horrendous. The green chairs with the red frilly cushions really popped with personality.

"Let me in." Lexi cried out from outside the room.

"Sorry don't want to! And even if I did there is only one bed in this room." Saying that put a smile toy face.

"Fine I'll go get my own room for the night!" I heard stomping telling me that she was going downstairs to go get a room. Considering that I had the all the keys to all of the rooms, I was feeling pretty good. I give her two days till she gives up.

"Hay! You have all the rooms!" she yelled running back up the stairs

"I do."

"Give me one of the keys!" she was getting progressively louder.

"Nope. I don't think I will."

"You're just going to let me sleep in the hallway? What if I get PKed in my sleep? People can do that you know! You just grab the sleeping players hand and make them accept a duel."

I opened the door, and Lexi looked to be holding back tears. The fact that she might cry didn't move me one second.

"I'll sell you a key for twenty nights worth of gold." I waved a key in front of her face.

She hesitated for a second, then after wiping her face she steeled her resolve. "Ok I'll buy that key."

"Wait. really!" I was honestly dumbfounded "You know how much gold that is?"

"You can't back out now." she said pulling down her menu and transferring the money

"Ok." I dropped the key into her hand and then closed the door. She was persistent, but she'll break. Eventually.

**Day 2**

Like the last floor. I took it upon myself to make a map of the floor. This would have been really easy, but Lexi had to come along.

"Can't believe you made me wake up so early" She mumbled grumpily.

I ignored her.

Floor sixteen was a desert dungeon. It was pure sand that ranged from mountain to mountain with no buildings in sight. The monsters here were armored lizard men, some with swords and others with spears. This floor was a death trap. Mobs can group underneath the sand and cause a monster trap. Once a player steps near the mobs, they all surface. All the mobs can surprise a player making a deadly one vs forty fight. Players can die by not taking the proper precautions. We had to watch out for the traps. We kept our teleport crystals in hand, and luckily with enough detection you can scout the traps. Lexi had a huge investment in accuracy, and detection so she had nailed was made for this floor.

That was one good thing about having her around. She would tell me where the traps were, and I would write it down. We had to keep walking and paying attention. This floor was almost fully mapped thankfully. It was near the end of the day, and when I looked at Lexi she seemed to be deep in thought. Deep in thought, and sad. The smile that was always on her face wasn't there at the moment.

"I don't get it..." She muttered to herself.

"What don't you get?" I stopped and turned towards Lexi.

"Do you not want to complete the game?" She looked at me. She was frustrated. I could see it on her face "The knights of the blood oath was a guild made to clear the game with the help of the greatest players. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to join"

"Like I said, I'm a solo player. Also I'm not in any rush to complete this game."

"But why?!" she seemed offended. I could see tears were welling up, "I had family and friends out in the real world. I want to get back to that..." she marched toward me "Don't you have a life outside as well!"

She just then pulled a very thin cord. I walked up to her, and looked down on her. "No. I don't have a life outside this game. I'm a quadriplegic hospital patient that shits himself in bed, and I'm so pathetic that my father gave up on me. I don't care if we end up spending fifty years in this game. Got it?" I turned and walked away from her "Not the type of person you want in your stupid guild right?"

After that, she didn't follow me. I was alone, and I could focus on making the map, but I didn't get to enjoy my loneliness because after a few minutes I heard a scream from back where I separated from Lexi. I had no time to think. I ran back to where we were, and saw a group of lizardmen. The air had a red tint to it and Lexi was surrounded by at least thirty lizardmen all bunched up in a group all around her. Her health was already below forty percent. I charged into battle with sword in hand already glowing to use a skill. I slashed horizontally and cut through three lizard men. Once the data was not wasting space, I charged into the pit of lizards slashing and stabbing. I had killed at least 6 before made it to Lexi. She was nearing twenty percent health..

"Don't go giving up on me now! Use your teleport crystal!" I yelled at her

She looked towards me with worry in her eyes "I can't!"

"What!" I said as I slashed a lizard that jumped at us. Why can't she teleport. Kayaba! What did you do!

"Looks like we have to kill every single one! I told her and she got into a ready position.

"Do you have any health potions?" I asked her

"No"

"Me neither so don't get hit!"

We launched into battle. Lexi didn't fight with a sword. With her insane accuracy stat, she threw sharpened pebbles. I couldn't tell if it was actually a very effective way to battle, but it was getting the job done. She threw a pebble and staggered a lizard with it. I then rammed the staggered lizard through the stomach. Once the lizard was gone, five more tried to jump me. This was a bad spot because I can only kill three in the position I was in.

I was bound to take damage. I slashed horizontally again to kill the three I could reach. The other two behind me hadn't damaged me yet. I rolled, and turned to see that they were replaced with dead clumps of data.

"Wooohoooo!" Lexi jumped for joy.

"Grats" I told her as I charged the rest of the lizards. I cut and slashed my way threw all of them except two. They stood side by side. It was going to be too easy.

I ran for them and charged a skill holding my sword to my hip facing behind me. I then swung my sword and it ripped through the air catching one of the lizard men. I wanted to take both of them out, but no. The second one dug below the sand. I couldn't tell where it went. The lizard man jumped out of the sand five feet into the air. I couldn't reach him. The lizard man started charging a skill. I assume that he was aiming for me so I got out of his way, but that wasn't its plan. He threw his charged sword at Lexi. The sword ripped through the air.

"Lexi!" I shouted, hoping that she would avoid it. She heard me and jumped to the left, but that wasn't enough. The blade ripped through Lexi's left leg. The blade did a chunk of the health that she had remaining. I was so relieved when she survived it. After the last attack the lizard man fell right onto my blade killing itself.

Once the battle was all over, I fell to my knees with joy. Somehow we were able to survive a trap. Luckily the trap wasn't that big.

"Yea!" Lexi yelled with joy, but then collapsed.. That was bad I ran up to her and examined her condition. She was burning up. I had to check her life bar for any status conditions and when I checked, there it was poison. The lizard men must have had poison coated weapons

"Dammit!" I yelled "we need you to a town!" I brought out a massive teleport crystal crystal and tried to teleport both of us out, but the teleports were still not working. I had no time for this! I picked her up and started moving through the desert. Step after step while Lexi's health was depleting over time. It was about twenty five minutes and Lexi's health was at five percent

"Zen, am I going to die?" She sounded weak. Her arms and legs limp

"No you aren't, just keep hanging in there. Tell me about that family you need to get back too." I readjusted her back onto my back

"Well I have a mom and dad. They would always be so protective of me heh... I didn't like that, so I shut them out, and did what I wanted for a long time. One day I messed up real bad and they yelled at me. My parents and I never got along too well, but after a few too many absences at school, and coming home late it eventually came back to bite me. I know that they only yelled at me because they cared for me but I ignored it and shut myself off In the beta of SAO."

"You were a beta tester?" I asked her

"Yea and I've made it far enough to be labeled as a beater. Heh" her laughs started to sound weaker. "Beater. What a stupid name, but anyways I used to play twenty four seven and not care about my mother or father, and after a mouth of being in here I realize that I miss my mommy's warm hugs and my daddy's bad jokes" her voice started to get weaker and her health hit two percent. I wasn't going to make it! I opened my menu to desperately look for an antidote. I had stuff for paralysis, bind, and even forced sleep, No Poison!

"I'm not going to let you die!" I yelled as I took out my crystal one more time and held it to the sky. Nothing nothing!

"Teleport!... Teleport! Teleport! Teleport teleport teleport!" This can't be happening! Her health was going to hit zero, and there was nothing I could do about it.

"And when I realized that I missed my parents" Lexi continued to talk "I realized that there are many people that are here good or not... That miss their parents, children, friends, family, and I felt that I needed to help everyone reunite. I made it a quest that started off as getting back to my parents, and changed to getting everyone out of this game." She smiled while saying this... I wouldn't know if I could do the same if I was in her position.

"Hang on! So you can complete that quest!"

She grabbed my hand gently with hers "It's ok Zen I guess it's my time."

I couldn't accept this!

"Zen... Its ok. I've lived a good life." her smile didn't make sense. She continued to talk "Can you stay with me until I go? I don't want to be alone."

"Of course."

"You know, I never got to use my secret weapon." she said

I giggled gently "What was it?"

"My womanly charm." Lexi smiled "Heh, I've never even kissed a boy."

"I don't know if you would have been able to seduce me. I thought you were really annoying."

Lexi laughed weakly "I guess you wouldn't like to give a dying girl her first kiss then would you."

All thoughts in my head disappeared. Am I allowed? I leaned in to kiss her. Our lips connected. It was warm and comfy. Who knew that the only thing I had to do to get her to be quiet, was to kiss her. I never wanted this feeling to go away. Lexi is way too energetic, hopeful, and kind. She was my opposite, and in that second, even though we had only known each other for two days, I would have given anything for her.

We parted, and she started to disintegrate.

"You're a good kisser." Lexi said "Zen please complete my mission for me. I don't care anymore if you join the knights or not." She gave one last smile "I believe you can do it!" She raised her hand and wiped a tear off my face. "bye Zen." And with that she was gone.

Utter sorrow filled me and then rage and confusion. My stomach turned. My chest was on fire. I could feel the tears. I tried to hold back my emotions. I tried to hold back my tears, but it was no use. I threw myself over into the sand. So many feelings were overwhelming me. I looked up into the sky, and all I saw was Aincrad.

"She didn't deserve this!" I yelled into the sky. there was only one person that I could blame this on. "Kayaba... Kayaba! Kayaba!


	5. One Shot

**Chapter 6: Chapter 6**

Disclaimer I do not own SAO

There was a slight hush I'm the air. Players were all gathered around in a cave. The cave was a safe meeting place on the fifty-sixth floor. blue lights filled the cave and the players in it. There were up to around sixty players in the cave. The blue light revealed a map that was on a table. The map showed the whole layout of the 56th floor and above it were Kirito and Asuna doing their usual fight. Kirito was making a complaint about killing off NPCs to beat the boss. I didn't know what his problem was... They did respawn. I honestly thought that Kirito was crying over nothing. We were in a life or death game. This was no time to be worrying about NPCs. Actual living people take priority. Once this game is complete, no one is going to be guilty that Bob the shopkeeper didn't respawn.

Asuna was right, and she was the leader of the operation. Whatever she decided was final, and after Dominance was established between the two. The meeting was adjourned. Some of the players wanted to stay in the cave a bit, and talk about the boss battle that was about to happen, but I on the other hand wanted to feel the warmth of the sun. I walked out so I could enjoy a beautiful day in SAO... Well, at least until Asuna approached me.

"Zen, may I speak to you for a second?" Asuna walked toward me. She wore a knights of the blood oath uniform. The uniform had white with a red out lining. it was light armor so it wasn't bulky and it was short sleeved. Tied to her waist was an emerald rapier that she used to make swift lunges and stabs to poke at her enemy. She was now second in command of the knights. I honestly couldn't believe it. She didn't even know how to look up a player's name the last time I saw her.

"Sure" I said gesturing towards her. I was wearing a new set of armor. It took the shape of a blue clock and had black outlines. It went all the way to my pants that matched. On my forehead I wore goggles. The goggles were more of a fashion statement, but I had a practical use for them too. They helped keep stuff out of my eyes when I fought.

Asuna pulled me over to the side where no one could hear our conversation

"Zen..." She looked at me with conviction in her eyes.

"There was a group of players on floor 54... That saw you one shot a group of mobs from a distance. It was a weapon no one had seen in SAO before... What is it and where did you get it?"

Asuna had found out about a skill that I learned recently. It appeared after I had maxed out my accuracy stat. The skill was Crossbow and it unlocked a new item set that only can be obtained with the skill. It was a unique skill that I haven't seen anyone else in the game obtain yet. The bow was three and a half feet long and the arrows for it dealt fetal damage to anything it hits. The punch it packed was gigantic, but the down side was because of its weight it can slow me down, and after I fire a bolt, it took years to reload.

"Don't worry about it... It's unique to one person anyways"

"A unique skill?" Asuna was in wonder I could see it on her face. She wanted to ask questions, and I wanted to leave before she started to ask the questions. I didn't want to sit here and answer a hundred questions when I could be grinding.

"Ok Zen I'll be off now" She waved her hand and started walking off in the opposite direction. It honestly shocked me. Was I wrong about her? Did she not want to ask me the questions? If I saw the questions on her face, she probably saw in my face that I didn't want to answer them.

"You should reconsider joining the knights" She yelled back at me before she left my sight

I haven't even the faintest interest. I was a solo player, and that would never change. All I really care for is completing this game. I had a mission. Friends were just a distraction, and in a world like this, temporary.

After the talk with Asuna everyone on Floor 56 had to get ready for the boss fight or leave the floor because this fight is going to be chaotic. Some players that fight on the front lines were scared of this boss fight, and left the floor. Though it would be better if they stayed, but we couldn't force them to stay.

Once the scared players were gone the operation began. This was the plan. The boss was called Jin the all-powerful. He took the shape of a genie, except he had the head of a boar. Jin also had crescent shaped bone spikes that shot out of his back like a porcupine. The most annoying thing about the boss was that he wasn't confided in a room. He roams around the floor on Sundays every other week. We also had a certain amount of time to find him and kill him. The boss was solo with no helpers. The problem is that the boss had health that would heal over time. The boss was also known to target more than one player at a time, hitting in an area, or AOE.

The plan was that we wanted to lure Jin into the town so he would auto target NPCs if they got close. While he killed the NPCs, we killed him. Simple, right? No it wasn't. To get him to the town was the difficult part. We had to share aggro from the boss as he chased us using up health bots as we go. The boss appears at a random spot on the floor so the path back to town can be short or it can be impossibly long. To find the boss we sent search parties in groups of four in each direction of the dungeon. Each party had someone who had Asuna in their friend list. Once a party found the boss they would send a message Asuna, and then she would inform everyone else. Once the message is sent the party that found him aggros the boss and then heads for town. At first the party aggro'd the boss by using throwing items so they can keep at a distance, but throwing items didn't make it mad enough to charge as fast as it can. We didn't have time to walk the boss to the town so that was a temporary solution until the entire front line got into position. After, we started attacking it harder with blades.

Jin charged dropping player by player to low health. Once a player was low on health, we switched the boss's attention to a higher health player. While low the player would go behind the boss and chug potions. After thirteen players had swapped, Heathcliff was next. he Heathcliff left agroo at yellow hp. I guess his life was more important than the lives of his guild. It was my turn I went into agro range and put my sword through his side as I put on my goggles. Jin didn't take kindly to this and roared. I speed ahead just enough to dodge a bone spike that launched from his back. He started to throw his fists at me while spikes from his back shot towards me. After a while the spikes started blocking my path. My HP hit yellow, but I kept going. I had a plan so I could stay in longer than normal front liners. I turned around and charged a throw skill, which is my most useful skill now. I threw a nail that scored a direct hit. The nail pierced his eye. Jin flailed back in pain. He clutched his eye, and looked through his hand as he chased me.

"Jin! Your mother was my bacon this morning!" I insulted it. He kept on chasing my voice in front of him, but his attacks were nowhere near hitting me. With an eye damaged, it made sense. Eventually he hit me once or twice and brought me down to red, but as I did we made it to town. I chugged a potion. The NPCs then took Jins attention from me.

Once Jin started attacking the NPCs, all the players went in, hit the boss, and got out before they got targeted. The plan was going smoothly. We managed to do more damage then the boss was able to heal.

The boss got under 50% and things started to get dangerous. Jin's skin turned red and his damage off his skills increased as well as the size of his AOE. He was starting. It got dangerous for a lot of players fast. The AOE was big enough to hit an NPC and three other players thirty-five feet away from the NPC. I got to the point that players had to do permanent retreats. After bashing at it for a few minutes we got it to 20% he had two bars of health left and we weren't killing him fast enough. The day was about to end and the boss was about to despawn. We were going to have to do the boss fight again and that would be too dangerous for a lot of players. I had to use my secret skill.

The boss wasn't targeting me yet so I had time to change equipment. I pointed my finger out in front of me in the air and swiped down. What appeared before me were bubbles in midair with options like item, stats, and equipment, and other options rpgs usually had. I selected equipment and it opened up a menu to the right of the bubble. The menu had names of all the equipment I had. I scrolled down and selected the item Stringed Vein. Once selected a menu appeared above it blocking the other from vision. equip? yes or no it read. I selected yes and my sword blew up in a bunch of pixels, then the pixels came back to form a crossbow bigger than half my body.

"Out of my way!" I yelled to clear the area. Once everyone left I went down on one knee so that the kick back on the crossbow wouldn't kill me… literally. I aimed at Jin's head and fired. The bow shot through the air with so much power and speed that you could hear it cutting through the wind. The kick back was still powerful enough to put me on my back, but the bow was worth the bruise as it hit the bull's eye and went right through Jin's head almost instantly killing him. I had to recharge the bow which was the downfall of it. Five minutes was a lifetime on the battlefield. The boss was left with a sliver of health left. It was about to despawn when luckily enough, Asuna jumped out, and finished it off. The congrats was sounded. Congratulations appeared in the air where the boss died and the next floor opened. I smiled weakly. I loved that we passed the floor, but I'm not excited about all the questions I'm going to get about my bow. Everyone was going to go crazy. Wannabe archers were going to be the worse.


	6. Ventus Regnum

**Chapter 7: Chapter 7**

Disclaimer: I don't own SAO

Floor fifty five was a dark forest with different sections. Some areas would have dead trees while others would have dark trees and the third area had living trees. This forest had a haunted setting. This floor was full of monsters that had special spawns, like coming out of the dark, coming up from the ground, and some drag a players into the darkness. It was a fun floor in my opinion, I used to go to horror films all the time before the accident. The enemies give less experience than the last floor so my job here wasn't to grind, it was to map the floor, and even that wasn't going to do much. The floor boss's room was in the town. Sounds simple?

Well, if it were that simple, the room would have been completed already. The door to the boss was in town, but is locked and the key is somewhere in the dungeon. The map for this dungeon was important for this floor. We didn't need it to find the best experience spots because people go to the next floor down to grind. We didn't need to map to find the boss room because we knew where it was. The map was important because it helped us narrow down the keys, and navigate the weird monster spawns. It's only use was to avoid monster spawn traps. While mapping I had to watch out for spawn areas that might have field bosses and area locks which can lead to players' deaths. I would test areas for traps. I was the best person to do it. Being one of the highest level players with a unique weapon.

In a game where you have no second chances or due overs I'm not going to take the risks. If there is a player that was nearby, I would let the player set off the traps.

I mumbled. The dungeon was huge. I don't know what the key looks like, or what size it was. It could be the size of a house, or the size of a coin. "If I were a key where would I be?"

"If I were a key I'd be in a pocket." A man's voice rang out almost sung in a very high tone. I turned to see a man older than me with brown hair in a ponytail with bangs that hung off his face. He wore a shirt that looked like a jacket that reaches down to his thigh in the back. The shirt was open showing an undershirt. His pants were silk and his whole outfit had a green and yellow theme to it.

"Hello…" I stared at the man blankly. What… was this guy wearing? I shared an awkward moment with him until he broke the silence.

"Aaaawkwaaaard! He blurred the word and his tone got higher. "My name is Kagura, a very handsome man and reliable on … Any team. He put emphasis on any and yelled it. Did he just pose?

"Alright… um… Kagura right?" I looked at him. Was he one of the many players that wanted to know how to get my bow?

"Yes! That's my name. Don't wear it out."

"Alright Kagura, I'm mapping this floor right now I'll see you later." (Hopefully never again.) I started walking again to get away from whatever it was that I just ran into. This guy was weird, and I would have gotten away, if I wasn't trying to be careful about traps.

"Wait!" he caught up to me "No one should be alone especially on a floor this high. I Kagura! Keeper of the woman's soul, shall join you." After he said that, I face palmed. Was this guy serious? Did he have a nickname for himself? I didn't have time for this. The key was close. I could feel it.

"Stay behind me…" I mumbled as I continued on my way. Kagura and I fought mobs and split the already low experience. Kagura used a dagger. It was different than the usual shield and sword. Kagura was a weird player… he wouldn't stop making jokes on the spot whenever the situation had something he thought was funny. If he ever killed something with a stab motion, he would always say "I think he got the point" putting heavy emphasis on the words the point. I honestly didn't know if I was going to live another pun. Was I going to become a player killer over this?

After a bit longer, the map was complete with marked spawn traps and one field boss most likely holding the key. The floor was almost done. Kagura and I were walking back when I heard a noise. I turned around

"Come out" I yelled towards a group of trees. It was silent for a second, but then two players with yellow diamonds above their head appeared.

"Drop your stuff and leave, or we'll have to kill you." behind them they had a player with a red diamond.

"Look at this bunch." Kagura said keeping his cool "Zen you handle them I'll give you support." He said pulling out a flute. What the heck? "I am a bard. I'll boost your stats." What was he doing? He started to play a song that sounded intense. It sounded like battle music. There was no class system in this game. This guy was straight crazy

"Look guys! They think they can handle the three of us with only the two of them" they all readied their swords. The first two charged me.

I took out my sword. Right before they got to me. I ran into a darker part of the forest. I put on my goggles and the two pkers ran in after me. Once inside it was pitch black and it was hard to see anything. My goggles though. I customized them so that they had night vision with the press of a button. I could see anything they planned to do. I heard the steps of the pkers stop. I saw the enemy, but they didn't see me. I ran, I grabbed one of the pkers which made a lot of noise. The one not in my arms stabbed toward me, but missed instead of me he stabbed into the pker that I was holding lowering the players health to low. I quickly slit his throat to finish him off. The moment the player burst into data I cut off the arm of the other. The player killer that was still alive didn't give up when he should have. He ran into me knocking me over, and getting on top of me. I dropped my sword and grabbed him by his shoulders pulling him down. I got on top of him, and he started trying to bite me in desperation.

"I'm not going to die!" he yelled "I don't want to die! I won't die I can't die!" I felt sorry for the guy. I took out a nail from my back pocket and plunged it straight into his forehead. Once the pker burst into data. I headed back, and when I saw Kagura he had the enemy pinned down trying to shove his flute down his throat. He had the man begging for his life. The man looked scared and desperate.

**Later**

After we got back from the forest we had the one player put in jail. Kagura gave the guy mercy, and wouldn't let me kill him. After we got back to town Kagura kept following me. This guy wanted something. He was very suspicious.

"Zen I have a question…" he said with a serious face which was the first one I've seen for him.

"Shoot." It was most likely going to be a question about my bow.

"You don't have to fight alone… it's not safe… So I want you to join my guild Ventus Regnum." Kagura had just invited me to his guild and it was probably a big guild which I didn't like being around people so I was going to decline. I was a solo player if I didn't make that clear… to everyone on the front lines

"It's a start up guild I had just made it today…" he was still serious

"How many people are in it?" I asked

"Well if you join that will make two." His face was a little worried that I was going to decline when I found out it was small. I started laughing small is too big a word for the guild. It wasn't even a guild yet.

"Hey don't laugh! I know it's small, but it's a guild I'm making that will get everyone out of SAO!" Once I heard those words… I had no more reason to decline the offer. I hate to admit it, but this dumb self proclaimed bard, kinda reminded me of Lexi

"I'm in" I replied to his question.

"What? Really? Yes!" he raised his fist in triumph. "Alright Zen! We shall conquer the world! There is no trail we can not overcome! No girl we cannot romance! In fact! let's find some girls to celebrate your joining!" he started walking pulling my collar dragging me along with him.

"No thanks! I don't need any of that! I don't need romance in my life! Are you listening me!? Stop! Let go of my shirt! GAHHHH!"


End file.
